2019 Film Breakdown

Compared to 2018's 88 films 2019 was a cracker of a year! I watched 139 and of those 40 were new to me!

January: 10. 5 animated, 3 musicals, 2 comedy. 2 were new to me.

February: 23. 20 animated, 2 comedy, 1 fantasy. (Land Before Time re-watch.)

March: 12. 4 animated, 3 musicals, 2 comedy, 2 fantasy, 1 superhero. 2 were new to me.

April: 21. 12 animated, 3 fantasy, 2 action, 2 drama, 2 comedy. 4 were new to me.

May: 5. 1 animated, 1 animal, 1 comedy, 1 action, 1 fantasy. 2 were new to me.

June: 14. 4 animated, 6 fantasy, 4 action. 4 were new to me.

July: 11. 1 animated, 1 musical, 1 fantasy, 1 action, 7 superhero. 6 were new to me.

August:  4. 2 animated, 2 fantasy. 2 were new to me.

September:  4. 2 fantasy, 1 superhero, 1 action. 2 were new to me.

October: 2. 1 animated, 1 horror. 1 was new to me.

November: 6. 2 animated, 2 fantasy, 2 horror. 4 were new to me.

December: 27. 6 animated, 4 animal, 1 superhero, 6 fantasy, 10 seasonal fun. 10 were new to me.

This was the list I wanted to see in 2019, I've struck through the ones I did see:
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
A Dog's Way Home
Aladdin
Artemis Fowl
Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Charlie's Angels
Dumbo
Escape Room
Frozen 2
Hellboy
It 2
Missing Link
Pet Sematary
Rocketman
Shazam!
Spider-man: Far From Home
The Kid Who Would Be King
The Lion King
The New Mutants
The Queen's Corgi
The Secret Life of Pets 2
The Sun Is Also A Star
Toy Story 4
Uglydolls
What Men Want
Wonder Park
X-Men: Dark Phoenix

And here's the 2020 list:

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
Dolittle
Sonic the Hedgehog
Wendy
Onward
My Spy
Trolls World Tour
Mulan
The New Mutants
Antlers
The Secret Garden
Black Widow
Untitled Saw Project
Fast & Furious 9
Artemis Fowl
Wonder Woman 1984
Candyman
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Jungle Cruise
Morbius
In the Heights
Infinite
The Witches
Eternals
Raya and the Last Dragon
West Side Story

So to recap my film goal is 100 with a stretch goal of 150 and for 50 to be completely new to me and a cinema goal of 8.

Stef Out xx

New Year's Resolutions 2020

So now I've got 2019's resolution recap out of the way - my film recap will come after this post - I can do the post with this year's resolutions so:

1. Get at least one piercing
2. Get at least one tattoo
3. Get fitter
4. Sort out my health
5. Draw or write something every day
6. Get a new car
7. Learn to drive
8. Get a new puppy
9. Watch 100 films
10. Read 100 books
11. Go to the cinema at least 8 times
12. Go to Longleat
13. See a show on stage
14. Start to save more money
15. Learn to knit
16. Learn to crochet
17. Learn embroidery
18. Write 20,000 words for NaNoWriMo
19. Get up to date with book reviews
20. Start to grow my hair out

So rather a long list this year... Still doable in theory but we'll see how it goes. I actually got books for embroidery and crochet for my birthday last year but thanks to the bought of depression mentioned in the last post I lacked the motivation to do anything with them. I've also seen a knitting book on Amazon that I'd like to get to help with that one. 9 days into January and the draw every day is working well since I picked up a 365 Days of Art book at work.

This year I decided to change my normal 'lose weight' goal to something more meaningful. I want to feel less out of breath when I'm running around work and I need to sort out various health stuff. For a start this dizziness thing I have. I can't turn on the spot without going wobbly and looking a certain patterns makes my eyes go all fuzzy and I can't focus. I'm also type 2 diabetic and while at my last appointment my sugars had gone down to a better range (it was bad enough that I was on 3 month review but now I'm back on 6 month review) I obviously do want to improve it. If I could come off the injectible medication would be great.

Last year I watched 7 films at the cinema so I thought I'd stretch it to 8 for this year and 1 is already done. Cats on New Year's Day, despite the bad reviews I really enjoyed it.

Anyway that's enough for this post.

Stef Out xx

2018 Resolutions Recap and Film Overview

For anyone that wants a reminder here is my post about 2018's resolutions here and film overview here. I did not do well. Out of 20 goals I achieved 2 and a half. I saw 5 films at the cinema, got a new car and lost 1 stone out of 2. Not great. I even failed my usually faithful book and film challenge. This year I did change my work hours slightly. Friday's I used to do 8 til 1 and then I'd come home and watch a film before walking the dog to meet mum from work because she was doing 11 til 5. But then we realised switching round would be better because it means mum can come home and do things like cleaning or ironing. So we did so that meant bye-bye film Friday.

I will do a post in a few days about this years resolutions, I've just got to come up with them first! Back to last year's recap. Body mods, driving and days out were affected by money. We got the new car in February but then a few months later the clutch went so that needed sorting, plus it's had two tyres done. Forest had his op in the summer as well so no pups for him. Also mum had problems with her Universal Credit stopping, basically her details got deleted when the system changed so we needed to re-set that up. We also did one for me but apparently living at home means I have no outgoings - tell that to my weeping bank account - so I'm not eligible for anything. Sucks. I haven't had the energy to look into anything job-wise so I'm still in retail hell for now. The only drawing I've done all year is two Secret Santa gifts in December. I've really struggled with motivation and concentration this year, with reading as well :( I worked out that for music to play on my phone it needs to be in MP3 format so I'm working on converting my library and I will get a larger memory card for my phone. I do still need to get a tablet for writing though and It'll make keeping up with this blog easier. I can't keep taking months to post reviews...

Films
Now onto the film section! This year I only managed to watch 88 films. That's bad for me. Onto the breakdown:

January: 18 of which 4 were animated, 3 musicals, 3 superhero, 2 fantasy, 1 serious and 5 horror. 4 new to me.

February: 5 of which 1 was animated and 4 were fantasy. 3 new to me.

March: 7 of which 3 were animated, 1 superhero and 3 fantasy. 1 new to me.

April: April was a bad month and I watched no films. :(

May: 4 of which 2 were animated and 2 were superhero. All 4 were new to me.

June: 10 of which 4 were animated, 1 superhero, 1 musical, 1 romance, 1 animal and 2 fantasy. 4 new to me.

July: 10 of which 3 were animated, 3 animal and 4 fantasy. 2 new to me.

August: 12 of which 5 were fantasy, 3 were animated, 1 animal, 1 musical, 2 serious. 2 new to me.

September: 2 of which 1 was superhero and 1 was animated.

October: 2 of which 1 was fantasy and 1 was horror. 1 new to me.

November: 3 of which 1 animated, 1 fantasy and 1 serious. 2 new to me.

December: 15 of which 11 were animated, 3 fantasy and 1 serious. 4 new to me.

33 animated so less this year. 27 new to me films I ended up not tracking re-watches like I planned. I may for 2019, I've started a new notebook which is a little bigger and lined so it may be easier.

Total Cinema Trips: 10
I smashed my goal of watching 5 films at the cinema and went 10 times for 8 films!
The Greatest Showman x 2
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again x 2
Bohemian Rhapsody
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

I haven't yet looked at what's out next year but I think that'll come in my next post with the new resolutions themselves as this has gotten a little long.

Stef Out x

Film Review: The Incredible Journey vs Homeward Bound

I just watched Disney's The Incredible Journey for the first time. I feel like I've read the book but it was so long ago that I can't remember it and I've been a fan of the remake for years so I thought a watch of the original was in order.

The Incredible Journey tells the story of young Labrador Retriever Luath, elderly Bull Terrier Bodger and talkative Siamese cat Tao. The animals are living with a family friend as their own humans have gone to England temporarily for the father to complete a visiting fellowship at Oxford.

One day their foster owner leaves for the open of the duck hunting season on the understanding that the housekeeper will keep an eye on the animals. This is not to be as Luath spots some geese flying home overhead which awakens his own instincts to return home. With some persuasion the others follow - getting into several scrapes along the way including bears, porcupines, a deadly river and a lynx. Bodger being elderly struggles along the way and nearly doesn't make it but eventually all three animals make it home after more than three weeks of travel.

The human acting and scriptwork left a lot to be desired but the narrator Rex Allen had a wonderful, smooth voice that was easy to understand and listen to. The animal actors on the other hand were fantastic, so well-trained and none of them appeared unhappy. There was just one thing they forgot to keep an eye on... Bodger is referred to as a male dog but for 80% of the film at a rough estimate he was portrayed by a female dog.

Overall 3/5 stars for The Incredible Journey.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is the flashier remake also by Disney following Chance the rambunctious American Bulldog, elderly Shadow the Golden Retriever and Sassy the Himalayan cat. Their story begins when the family temporarily relocate to San Francisco and leave the pets at a ranch. Shadow, the old, wise one misses his boy Peter and thinks something must be wrong which sets of a strong homing instinct and he persuades the others to leave with him.

From there the base plot is much the same as the original but the action is livened up with the animals being given voices and Chance narrating the overall action. The general acting quality is much improved as well. The switch to having the leader being the eldest was a wise decision because it was always stretching believability in my opinion having the eldest being a follower, would that pack loyalty go far enough to follow without question? Whereas Shadow being the old leader he has the mindset to push through the pain. I also really loved the scene where Shadow falls in the hole because it does put everything in jeopardy and you don't know the definite outcome until the very last minute.

4/5 stars for Homeward Bound.

Stef Out x

Song of the Week #5 Album Special #1

UPDATE: Now with added favourites list!

So one idea I had for this song of the week thing is if every 5 songs I do an entire album I love. Hmm, maybe every 10 would be better so theoretically the next one after this would be week 15, that might work better.

So the album I am choosing this week is 'The Greatest Showman' soundtrack!

The Greatest Show

Ever since seeing the film I have been obsessed with this soundtrack! So much so that I couldn't pick a single favourite to showcase.

This Is Me

These two are probably my top favourites but every single song is amazing! If I had to pick a least favourite it would possibly be either 'Tightrope' because I'm not as big a fan of Michelle Williams' voice or 'Never Enough' because that whole plot point is supposed to be about Jenny Lind, the world's most talented opera singer or something along those lines yet 'Never Enough' is definitely not opera, it's a lovely song but it misses the mark genre-wise. It kind of cheapens the moment slightly in my opinion. That's really my only criticism of the whole album though.

After another listen of the album I have done an order of my most to least favourites:

1. The Greatest Show
2. This Is Me
3. From Now On
4. Come Alive
5. The Other Side
6. A Million Dreams + Reprise
7. Rewrite The Stars
8. Tightrope
9. Never Enough + Reprise

I just noticed that on the default graphic for these YouTube videos Keala Settle's name is omitted from the header and I think that does a great disservice to her and her fantastic voice, seriously people she is epic!

Anyway I must fly for now, I will be back soon with another book review (just got to finish the book first) and I might do another little life update thing.

Stef Out x

Song of the Week #4

So it's time for another song of the week and it's the turn of the song that was meant to be up last week. 'Fox on the Run' by The Sweet.

Originally released in 1975 it actually did pretty well charting in the top 10 in multiple countries and number 1 in Australia, Denmark and Germany, however like many songs from the era it has been largely forgotten, failing to capture people as much as bands such as Queen from a similar time period. However some genius decided to use the song for the trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and later the official soundtrack causing the track to go to number 1 on the iTunes Rock Chart in late 2016. Unfortunately the song isn't in the film itself, instead we get about three clips of 'Brandy (You're a Fine Girl' by Looking Glass. A great song and it does fit the theme of the film well but they could have trimmed it a little for 'Fox on the Run' surely?

Anyway it's a fantastic, uplifting song that never fails to put me in a good mood. It's a particularly good one for walking home from work, it gets me in a good rhythm and I find I'm a bit faster while listening to it. I think I marginally prefer Vol. 2's soundtrack to Vol. 1's although Vol. 1 did have the gems that are 'Hooked on a Feeling' by Blue Swede and 'I'm Not in Love' by 10CC, it's generally slighter more light-hearted and sometimes you want a little more darkness (so she says while listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack).

That's it for today. I've got another book review coming up at the end of the week and then it'll probably be another song of the week.

Stef Out x

Film Review: The Greatest Showman

The story of circus ringmaster PT Barnum's early career and his journey from poor boy on the streets to 'The Greatest Showman'.

Before the film even starts and the producer logos are showing you get the chorus opening to 'The Greatest Show' alongside synchronised foot stomping. This opens into a magnificent group performance before the camera zeroes in on Hugh Jackman as PT Barnum before the scene fades to reveal a young boy looking at a ringmaster's outfit in a shop window before the camera pans down to show the open flap of the boy's shoe before his stern father calls him away.

This opening perfectly sets the scene for the story to come. A true rags to riches tale with genuine romance and a brilliant cast of characters. The soundtrack is perfectly matched too and no song feels out of place, every one moves the action forward or aids characterisation and will be a must buy for me. Personal favourites are 'The Greatest Show' and 'This Is Me'. Keala Settle's voice is absolutely stunning and her performance as The Bearded Lady is fantastic for only her third official acting credit, I foresee great things for her future. It would appear most of the supporting cast have very limited acting experience yet all were so impressive. I was also stunned to read on IMDB that Zendaya (Anne) did all of her own trapeze stunts, watching her sequences I was sure that it was a stunt double!

I also loved the fact that Barnum is a grey character. The relationship he has with his upper class born wife and daughters is brilliant to watch and while he has given the 'oddities' a chance he also easily forgets them when something shinier - Jenny Lind, the only cast member not to do their own singing - comes along. He also fakes some of the acts and I wonder how fair their wages were but it all comes good in the end and they become a true family. There's also a humorous rivalry between Barnum and a newspaper reporter.

It's also interesting to note that the descendant of Barnum's circus the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced in January 2017 that their doors were closing forever, due to decreased attendance and protests by animal rights activists. Their last shows were in May 2017. I also recently watched a David Attenborough documentary about Jumbo the elephant who was purchased by Barnum's circus, a move that led to his eventual death in a train accident while on tour. Jumbo was cited by Barnum to be the largest elephant in the world, a claim which owing to wild elephants being impossible to measure was unlikely to be true. However the documentary did state that Jumbo was large for his age and was far from fully grown. His life did not sound pleasant though, a diet of sweets leading to toothache which was dulled with copious amounts of whiskey, which was also used to calm his notorious rages, likely stemming from musth, the surge of hormones in male elephants. For anyone interested Attenborough and the Giant Elephant is available on BBC iPlayer. And probably other avenues...

5/5 stars

Stef Out x

Song of the Week #1

So it may be an ambitious plan that will surely fail but I had the idea of this year doing a song of the week feature on this here blog to hypothetically go up on a Wednesday, technically I'm writing this one on Tuesday and will schedule it. I didn't want to bombard people too much, although this will end up being posts three days in a row. A good start to the year I'd say, now if only I could get around to updating my real life journal - I keep forgetting about it for enough time that my fountain pen dries up and needs swishing in water before I can use it again. Ha ha!

Anyway today's song of the week is the second song in one of my current favourite films, and the first one on the soundtrack. It is: 'Mr Blue Sky' by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)!

This is a really complex and interesting songs in terms of lyrics and musical flow. It starts off kind of rock and roll, then you bring in some electronic stuff and then you have this random almost operatic section and it's just such a feast for the ears and I love it.

At work they get a music license for the month of December so they can play Christmas music (normally it's a silent environment) and then once everyone is back at work Boxing Day (oh yeah, where I work Christmas Day and Easter Sunday are the only two days of the entire year that we are closed) they play a random selection of pop music. A lot of it is crap, too repetitive and loud or with annoying long notes but one of the few decent ones they played is 'Mr Blue Sky', it didn't seem to come up in the rotation much though. One shift I heard multiple songs more than once yet you're lucky if 'Mr Blue Sky' plays at all.

Of course a brief mention to the awesome film it's part of: 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2'! It feels like an opening scene sort of song but it's technically not. You get an opening prequel of sorts with Peter's parents which as cute as a seen as it is it kind of takes away the guesswork later in the film. Grey the hair and add a beard and mystery dude isn't really a mystery because you've already introduced him at the beginning. I personally feel like it should have been more of a surprise, although saying that I think the actor and his role had already been revealed before the film's release so it was always out there I guess. 'Mr Blue Sky' is the opening scene for the main characters though and you get a great sequence of Baby Groot dancing around the battlefield among the other characters and it perfectly matches the group's collective personalities.

So that was 'Song of the Week #1'. I'll be back in a few days with a book review maybe and next week for 'Song of the Week #2' which is as yet undecided. I have a few in mind though and they will surely all get covered at some point.

Stef Out x

Film Overview 2017

One of my New Years Resolutions that I make and DO stick to every year is to watch 100 films not counting re-watches e.g. I could watch Frozen 10 times but it can only be counted once.

This year I thought I'd do something new and do a bit of a breakdown by month. If I was that sort of person I'd probably do genre related pie charts but I am rubbish at maths and numbers and all that jazz so I'll just do a mini breakdown.

Year Total:109

January:18 of which 6 were animated, 4 were superhero, 3 were fantasy, 2 were action, 1 was sci-fi, 1 was horror and 1 was a musical.

February: 15 of which 8 were animated, 6 were fantasy and 1 was romance.

March: 7 of which 4 were animated, 2 were fantasy and 1 was action.

April: 8 of which 3 were animated, the other 5 were superhero.

May: 6 of which 3 were animated and 3 were superhero.

June: 14 of which 12 were animated, 1 was superhero and 1 was comedy.

July: 16 of which 11 were animated, 3 were fantasy and 2 were comedy.

August: 2 and both were animated.

September: 5 of which 4 were animated and 1 was comedy.

October: 8 of which 6 were animated, 1 was sci-fi and 1 was a musical.

November: 3 of which 2 were fantasy and 1 was animated.

December: 7 of which 2 were animated, 3 were fantasy, 1 superhero and 1 thriller.

So out of 109 films 62 were animated. I guess that's my favourite genre... Of course I re-watched 'The Land Before Time' this year and there's 13 films in that series. Well 14 last time I checked but I don't own the most recent one yet... Need to rectify that sometime.

Total Cinema Trips: 4
Beauty and the Beast
Logan
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 - went twice.

For 2018 I have picked the same number to watch - 100 - but I have also added the extra goal of going to the cinema 5 times. Checking my local Vue cinema website I would like to see (in alphabetical order after films that are currently airing):

• Pitch Perfect 3
• The Greatest Showman
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• A Wrinkle In Time
• Ant-Man and the Wasp
• Avengers: Infinity War Part One
• Black Panther
• Coco
• Deadpool 2
• Hotel Transylvania 3
• Incredibles 2
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Love, Simon
• Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
• Monster Family
• Peter Rabbit
• The Darkest Minds
• The New Mutants
• The Shape of Water
• Wreck-It Ralph 2

The sequels are pretty much automatic based on their predecessors. Animated films are almost a guarantee although there were a couple listed that I'd like to see trailers first. Some like 'The Darkest Minds' I hadn't heard of but the synopsis sounds interesting. Superhero is another genre that's almost guaranteed but 'Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse' confused me in it's title. Is it a proper film? More information needed there, but also why do they need so many spidermen anyway? Just pick an actor and stick to him.

Another thing I want to try and track through 2018 is re-watches. How many times in a year do I watch Moana and the Guardians of the Galaxy films? Probably too many according to some but whatever. Anyway this has gotten pretty long so I will say goodbye and see you next post.

Stef Out x

I Spit on Your Grave Film Review 1978

Content Warning: Rape

For those who are not aware I Spit on Your Grave is a 1978 low budget rape revenge horror film that was originally titled Day of the Woman. My mum had mentioned a few years back that she had watched it once and it came up in conversation at work that there was a recent remake (2010). Ever since then we kept talking about getting both versions and comparing them.

Finding the older version was tricky but through Amazon reviews I discovered the German edition with the original title and the man on the cover - see below - was the original uncut version. The version that was released in the UK was apparently quite heavily edited and made the consequences seem over the top.

So for those who don't know the story fiction writer Jennifer Hills rents a waterside cottage in the countryside in order to write her first novel. Unfortunately she attracts a gang of local men's attentions. They kidnap her to be the first sexual experience for their mentally disabled friend. He refuses, later agreeing but not finishing, and the other 3 then rape her vaginally, anally and one a bit later orally while also assaulting her with a wine bottle. The disabled one is ordered to kill her but doesn't and she later exacts her revenge killing them each in turn.

The length of the film is short 110 minutes but it feels like it could be cut a little. Not much happens at the start of the film, Jennifer spends periods sitting writing or at her typewriter, not overly interesting scenes to watch. The rape scenes are horrible in their brutality but the motions of the male actors are very odd to watch, with one almost rocking from side to side. The low budget is evident in the revenge scenes where the blood is way too bright a red and when she kills the one man the scene obviously cuts to a separately filmed stand-in scene using what looks like a pig in place of the body.

I imagine in it's time it was a shockingly brutal and graphic film but in 2016 as someone who is a big fan of the Saw franchise it seems quite tame. I will be watching the 2010 version soon in order to give a comparison and see what modern viewing habits have done to the story and action.

Rating 2/5

New Years Resolutions 2015

Personal - Appearance

1. Lose a bit more weight, minimum 1 stone by moving more and eating better.
2. Get my right ear re-pierced.
3. Get my septum pierced.
4. Get both ears pierced again.
5. Start stretching bottom holes once healed.
6. Put dreadlocks in my hair once long enough - may be extended until 2016.
7. Refine my style.
8. Find a new purple hair dye - my current one isn't purple enough. Feel free to suggest, permanent colours only - less upkeep.

Personal - Other

1. Get my provisional license.
2. Learn to drive.
3. Decide a career.
4. Train for career if necessary.
5. Get a better job.
6. Help mum find a new job.
7. Write (finish!) a novel.
8. Go on a date.

Material

1. Buy new phones for mum and I.
2. Buy an external hard drive.
3. Buy a new desktop PC.
4. Buy an iPod Classic - used since they are now out of production (I hate years of bad finances).
5. Buy a Kindle.
6. Buy a laptop.
7. Upgrade the car.

Goals

1. Read at least 100 books.
2. Watch at least 100 films.
3. Finish the Gossip Girl series.
4. Read A Song of Ice and Fire.
5. Read Under the Dome.
6. Discover at least 2 new shows.
7. Discover at least 3 new bands/singers.
8. Improve my equine anatomy.
9. Improve my humans.
10. Draw a self-portrait.

Update April 2015:

A few things have been crossed off which I'm quite pleased about since we're only a few months into the year.

Update November 2015:
I've managed to cross some more things off but as we are now approaching Christmas I probably won't be able to cross off any others. The frustrating one is the weight loss one. I did manage to lose a bit but I've put it back on plus a little bit I think. *Sigh*

Blogtober Day 17 (Late) - Your Favourite Films.

So I did decide to have a list of 5 but to showcase my favourites properly it's turned into 7.

Labyrinth

My favourite for many years. I love the music, the characters, the story, everything. The technology for the year was amazing, I've watched the behind the scenes stuff on my DVD and everything is so meticulous!

Frozen

Yup I'm well and truly on the bandwagon. I've watched this more in the short space of time I've owned it (within days of release, a rarity for me) than I've watched other Disney films I own e.g. Aladdin despite them being so much older. Everything gets to me. I'm teary at the intro music, I'm teary at 'Let It Go', I'm teary at the finale. So many tears and I never cry! I love it's story and it's message - it's not perfect by far, there needs to be more female roles (2 named females vs at least 5 males), the anatomy needs to be more real and there wasn't enough time dedicated to the parents, their mother in particular was very flat. BUT I love that it focused on siblings rather than boyfriends, they mocked the 'marrying men you've just met' storyline, Hans' direction surprises me everytime and they feature active consent with the kiss at the end!

Harry Potter Series

I can't believe I almost forgot Harry Potter! A book and film series I've grown up with being almost the same age as the actors. I'm 24, Dan's 25, Rupert's 26 and Emma's 24. The first book was released in June 1997, 2 months before I turned 7, the first film in November 2001 when I was 11. It's such a solid part of my history. I re-read the books and re-watch the films at least once and year and my books need replacing as they're falling apart. I can imagine the earlier films needing replacing soon as well due to skipping.

Avatar

I don't care about it's similarities to Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves or whatever, almost every film in existence can be compared to another if you try hard enough. I love the design of the movie, everything is so detailed, I love the characters, they're all well-rounded and the women are bad-ass as fuck! The main thing I love is that the love story develops naturally over what appears to be several months, Neytiri hates Jake at first because he's 'fake' but she ends up saving his human life when he's in danger and that really touched me as a sign of how much she loves him. Jake is also respectful and wants to learn their ways despite his orders. I can't wait for them to hurry up with the sequels!

Final Destination Series

I love this series! The gore, the unrealistic nature of some of the deaths, it's brilliant! I also think what they did with the 5th film was genius! I like my horror gory rather than suspenseful, hence why I love this and the Saw series but couldn't even sit through 10 minutes of Paranormal Activity (that and I detest found footage films).

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies

I was never a big middle earth fan when I was young. I never even heard of them until I was older and they announced the films, I don't remember what I thought then but I do remember I bought a film tie-in set of The Lord of the Rings trilogy which I tried reading but I could never finish the first book for some reason. I think I had some kind of mental block. Still I watched the trailers of The Fellowship of the Ring and thought it looked interesting so I watched it and the fantasy and drama of it all had me hooked! Move forward several years and they announced the Hobbit so I decided to give it a read and enjoyed it. I am now really enjoying the Hobbit films and will be sad to see it over (even if they are relying on the CGI a little bit much this time around) and I am finally reading the books and have made it to the third book - even if it is taking a while.

The X-Men Series

I'll tell you something: I have never read a comic book in my life. Before these films (and any other superhero films) I have no idea about who the characters are unless I Google or Wikipedia it. This doesn't bother me. I still love superhero films. I've seen all the X-Men ones apart from The Wolverine, the original Spiderman trilogy, the first two Dark Knight films, both Fantastic 4 films, the first Iron Man and I watch Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Arrow on TV and just started Gotham. Now I am by no means a die-hard fan, obviously there's a lot I'm missing: Thor, Captain America, Superman, the new Spiderman but that doesn't bother me, the ones I want to watch I will get around to eventually.